TKP: Both Deniz Göktaş and those arrested during the NATO summit must be released

A statement has been issued by the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) regarding the detention of comedian Deniz Göktaş and the arrests made in connection with the NATO summit. 

In the statement made by the TKP, it was stated that the NATO summit arrests were carried out to criminalize opposition to NATO; a reaction was also shown to Göktaş's detention. 

In the statement, Göktaş's detention was evaluated as "an indicator of the intolerance toward humor."

The statement said, "Both Göktaş and those arrested in connection with the NATO summit must be released immediately." 

The full statement is as follows: "Deniz Göktaş must be released

The AKP government is practically terrorizing the country days before the NATO summit. In recent weeks, hundreds of people have been detained and subsequently arrested in connection with the NATO summit.  The way the operations were conducted, the people targeted, and the accusations clearly showed that the government's real goal is to criminalize opposition to NATO. The AKP government is concerned with removing NATO from being a subject of political debate and avoiding any political and social objection while involving the country in new NATO plans that lead it into a dangerous adventure.

During the same period, the targeting of comedian Deniz Göktaş and his detention today is an expression of the intolerance toward humor that appeals to the public's conscience and sense of justice, and makes the irrationalities produced by the system visible. This unlawful practice must be ended immediately, and both Göktaş and those arrested in connection with the NATO summit must be released immediately. 

A resistance confined to the demand for freedom of expression and criticism of authoritarianism against the AKP government, which tries to criminalize opposition to NATO and cannot tolerate humor that exposes the irrationalities of the system, does not produce any positive results, and to the extent that it does not, it causes the AKP to shift into a higher gear. The AKP's brutal attacks on the sphere of freedoms can only be repelled by a political wall to be built against the abyss into which it is dragging the country on behalf of the capitalist order. 

We will definitely bring our people's conscience and common sense, and their anger against the irrationalities of the capitalist order, together with an organized political struggle."